Biggest misconceptions about casuals and the average gamer.

The LFR topic made me think that people on the forums are somewhat misinformed on exactly what the average WoW subscriber enjoys in the game.

Anyway, before I give my opinion on the matter... Which do you think are the biggest misconceptions about casual gamers or the average WoW subscriber, in regards to what they enjoy in the game.

MOD NOTE: I wanted to make the poll multiple choice and forgot to add the option "That they prefer easy content!". If a mod could fix that, that would be great. :P

Last edited by True Anarch; 2013-05-12 at 03:41 AM.

Misbehave, Misbehave, Misbehave. Misbehave because you are not a puppet or a robot, but a human being that can experience the world from different perspectives. "But misbehaving is the first sin! When we are children we are told so! Even in the Bible we got cast out of Eden because Eve misbehaved!"
Cogs, robots and machines aren't allowed to misbehave. Are you trying to become a machine then?

Casual doesn't mean unskilled. There's actually quite a few heroic raiders that are pushing through the content on only a 3 night a week schedule.

That said, casual doesn't mean "give me easy mode." Things like LFR Lei Shen were perfect. It wasn't the casual players who got it nerfed, it was the outcry from the completely horrible "tunnel the boss with my auto attack and AFK" players who got it nerfed.

The LFR topic made me think that people on the forums are somewhat misinformed on exactly what the average WoW subscriber enjoys in the game.

Anyway, before I give my opinion on the matter... Which do you think are the biggest misconceptions about casual gamers or the average WoW subscriber, in regards to what they enjoy in the game.

The biggest misconception is that someone posting on these forums thinks they actually know what the "average" WoW subscriber enjoys. The other biggest misconception is that someone posting on these forums actually thinks there is a universally accepted definition of "casual"

The biggest misconception is that someone posting on these forums thinks they actually know what the "average" WoW subscriber enjoys. The other biggest misconception is that someone posting on these forums actually thinks there is a universally accepted definition of "casual"

The definition of a casual player is someone who plays on and off or whenever convenient.

Unfortunately, it became synonymous with "bad player" due to it being thrown around by elitist pricks or as a way to try to defend their poor play by the bad players.

So you are saying that a hardcore/serious player plays when it is inconvenient?
So YOUR definition of casual is based on amount of time played?

Made an edit after, so I just deleted and will repost it here.

Casual players simply play to have fun and when convenient. They're the bulk of the playerbase and they're also participants in every single aspect of WoW play from leveling and social guilds to heroic raiding. Casual doesn't equal bad. Personally met more casual players (on and off during the week, only a couple night raid schedules) who play better than people who sink a ton of time into the game (who then turn around and hide behind the word casual since they aren't heroic raiders.)

It's one big fucked up circle.

And yes, casual by definition is how much of a time investment you make. Casual players play less, hardcore players play more. It has absolutely nothing to do with the skill level of a player. It's just a word that gets thrown around as an insult or a cop out.

So you are saying that a hardcore/serious player plays when it is inconvenient?
So YOUR definition of casual is based on amount of time played?

I think you are taking what he said seriously out of context. What I saw when I read the comment was casuals play when they have the time. Meaning they are not able to put in the same amount of time as hardcore/serious players.

The biggest misconception is that thinking that they're bad at the game.

The second biggest misconception, generally touted by folks who claim to be casuals themselves when it suits them, is that they "don't have time to play, so please make things quicker". These are generally the same folks, who spent the last expansion rolling 3+ raid ready alts and vp capping them all on a weekly basis.

Benevolence is a luxury for the strong - Wrathion
Plox. I got your plox right fucking here. - Animalhouse
I still prefer seeing Thrall rather than blood in my urine, that doesnt make him a good character. - Verdugo

There needs to be an option for 'all of the above' in the poll. 'Casuals' to me is a term used by people who think themselves elite and better than everyone else in the game save the members of their raid/pvp guild. In America being called a socialist is often seen as a slur, in wow its being called a casual. I play about 3 hours a night on wow after I finish work at 1800. At the weekends I play a lot more, about 10 hours a day. I've been in since vanilla but have never raided seriously. I enjoy LFR (apart from the Deathwing one which was dull as dish water), I enjoy dalies and I RP a lot. Yet again, i've never raided 'properly' apart from way back in Vanilla where I was a MC main tank on my long deleted Tauren warrior.

I'm probably a 'casual' beacause I don't raid seriously, because I use LFR, because I don't mind doing dalies (go on skype, chat with friends whilst doing so or listen to some music, done!) and i'd rather be a casual than one of those folks who screams at everyone in an instance or stands there going gogogogogogoggofffsssfsfsfsfsffsss and then when you wipe calls everyone noobs etc. I know a ex serious raider, he ended out getting stress ulcers. Thats not playing a game, thats work. Sod that.

Trouble is, when is casual casual ?
3h a week ? That's not even nearly enough to do anything, and you could probably enjoy pretty much anything. If you don't... might wanna try another game.
10h a week ? Well if you're really willing to do something out of those 10h you could be glad, you could have a few HC bosses down on current content. It really depends on your implication and your skill.

You don't need much time to DO stuff. You just need to know where to look and know what you're looking for, and then move your ass. You REALLY don't need a whole lot of time if you want to do the content you enjoy at a relatively good level. You might need to put in a lot of hours if you want to do everything... of course.

Also auto proclaimed casuals should remember that the primary goal when playing a game is to have fun. Don't wanna do dailies ?...don't. I really don't get it, nothing in this game is really mandatory, do whatever the fuck makes you happy !

(PS : btw about vp gear, it'is only really needed for NM and NM is more a skill check than a gear check)

EDIT

Originally Posted by madassa648

There needs to be an option for 'all of the above' in the poll. 'Casuals' to me is a term used by people who think themselves elite and better than everyone else in the game save the members of their raid/pvp guild. In America being called a socialist is often seen as a slur, in wow its being called a casual. I play about 3 hours a night on wow after I finish work at 1800. At the weekends I play a lot more, about 10 hours a day. I've been in since vanilla but have never raided seriously. I enjoy LFR (apart from the Deathwing one which was dull as dish water), I enjoy dalies and I RP a lot. Yet again, i've never raided 'properly' apart from way back in Vanilla where I was a MC main tank on my long deleted Tauren warrior.

I'm probably a 'casual' beacause I don't raid seriously, because I use LFR, because I don't mind doing dalies (go on skype, chat with friends whilst doing so or listen to some music, done!) and i'd rather be a casual than one of those folks who screams at everyone in an instance or stands there going gogogogogogoggofffsssfsfsfsfsffsss and then when you wipe calls everyone noobs etc. I know a ex serious raider, he ended out getting stress ulcers. Thats not playing a game, thats work. Sod that.

Man you are not a casual, don't call yourself one. You just enjoy other sides of this game and mind you that is perfectly fine, but don't fuel the misconception of what a casual is !

See that's the trouble, you might enjoy those things, while others doing the same as you hate it and then spur the fact that they're "casual" is the reason not being able to do other things.

Exactly.
But to be honest "elitist" people would probably use "baddie" (or anything of the like) and the whole "casual" term came to be when people self proclaimed themselves to be casual as an excuse to not doing anything of great importance. Which then again is fine, but has nothing to do with being casual.

to sum up : I've never heard of the term "casual" being thrown as an insult before people actually used it as an excuse for anything.

Misc. things competing for a gamers time are not new. There were just as many casuals in the early days.

Indeed but you get people who forget that, folks who have a superiority complex because they have AMG EPIXS and you don't or got them through 'easy mode'. Forgetting that you (like me) don't have time to raid due to work or simply want to play the game to have fun (heaven forbid).